The death toll from student protest violence in Bangladesh has risen to 32, AFP reported today. In the evening local time (afternoon SELČ), a group of protesters set fire to the building of the state television station BTV, apparently there are people trapped inside. The television also stopped broadcasting. Protesters hid from police in the building, sources told AFP.
“Devastating fire in (the) BTV building. The flames are spreading fast. We are waiting for the fire brigade to come to our aid. A lot of people are stuck inside and can’t get out,” the TV station reported. According to television representatives, the building was set on fire by “hundreds of protesters”.
Another BTV official told AFP that protesters set fire to at least 60 cars, an office building and a police station in the capital Dhaka, in addition to the BTV building, as security forces tried to disperse a crowd of disgruntled students with gunfire.
The Prime Minister of the country, Sheikh Hasina Vajidova, in a televised appearance on BTV today, condemned the “murders” of the protesters and promised that the culprits would be punished regardless of political affiliation. Earlier, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh refused to accede to the demands of the protesters.
The students are protesting against a public sector job allocation system that heavily favors the children of war heroes who fought for the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971. The quota system in the country, which is struggling with high unemployment, is discriminatory according to some students.
According to Reuters, thousands of students with sticks and stones clashed with armed police today in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka.
After six students were killed on Tuesday, the government closed all the country’s universities and police raided the headquarters of the main opposition group, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi authorities have also shut down some mobile internet services to quell the protests.
Source: www.tyden.cz
